60% say they expect AI to make work better. Only 10.9% say they expect it to make things worse.
Ankit Deo
Head of Marketing (Canada & Mexico)
Workday
New Workday data reveals the more Canadian employees use AI, the more likely they are to see it as an opportunity for their career. Overall, Workday’s AI@Work Pulse found Canadians to be among the world’s most cautious and most optimistic about AI.
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For better or worse, Canadian employees now expect AI to change their jobs. According to an August 2026 survey of 5,944 global workers (988 in Canada), 76% of Canadian employees say they’ve received training in how to use AI at work.
We’re seeing a split in terms of whether they view AI as a threat: 38% expect AI to create new career opportunities, while a third (33%) say they expect AI to make the skills they use today less valuable.
38% expect AI to create new career opportunities, while a third (33%) say they expect AI to make the skills they use today less valuable.
The dissonance between threat and opportunity is most pronounced among the heaviest AI users. That is, employees who use AI the most are also the most likely to believe it will reshape their careers in both positive and negative ways.
High usage does not simply make Canadian employees more optimistic or more fearful. Instead, it appears to make them more aware of AI’s dual impact: it can open doors while also changing the value of the skills that got them there.
Manager conversations—or, lack thereof—likely play a role here. Many employees say they are not talking to their managers about AI and its implications. Four in 10 (42.3%) Canadian employees say their manager hasn't talked with them at all in the past three months about how AI is changing their role. That’s higher than the global rate of 37.4% and much higher than France (24.6%) or Germany (29.2%).
4 in 10 Canadian employees say their manager hasn’t talked with them at all in the past three months about how AI is changing their role.
But overall, the results show positive feelings about AI, independent of the lack of reassurance from their managers. The question is what’s driving this rose-colored outlook? Our data suggests a few factors:
More than half (53%) of Canadians in the study who use AI say the technology has helped them create higher quality work. That’s above the global average of 49.7%.
When asked whether they think AI will make their work better or worse, Canadians were far more likely than those in other countries to say they expected good things. Nearly 60% say they expect a positive outcome from AI at work versus 10.9% who expect things to get worse.
Nearly 60% say they expect a positive outcome from AI at work.
Only one in five (21.7%) Canadians surveyed report AI is “often” or “very often” involved in decisions about their tasks, schedule, performance or evaluation—the lowest of all six markets in our study.
What’s more, Canadians are the least likely to conceal their AI use. Only 40% say they have done so, versus 48.7% globally. This suggests employees in Canada are more likely to feel in control and psychologically safe using AI.
Here’s what else we’re tracking month over month. Come back in October for new insights and trends.
| KPI | What it Measures | Canada | Global |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI Adoption Rate | % of employees using AI for any part of their work, excluding “none of it” and “I don’t use AI at work” | 74.8% | 75.7% |
| Power-User / Heavy-Use Rate | % using AI for “most” or “almost all” of their work | 18.0% | 20.8% |
| Agentic Task Delegation Rate | % of AI users who have let an AI tool complete a task fully autonomously with little or no input at least once | 66.0% | 71.0% |
| Average Weekly Time Savings | Mean hours per week employees say AI saves them, using bucket midpoints | 2.71 hrs | ~2.8 hrs |
| AI “Rework Tax” | % of AI users who say 50%+ of their time savings is eaten up fixing or reworking low-quality AI output | 32.2% | 32.9% |
| Trust in AI Output Accuracy | % who agree or strongly agree they can rely on AI outputs without close checking | 40.3% | 43.4% |
| Shadow AI / Concealment Rate | % of AI users who deliberately hid their AI use on a work task | 40.0% | 48.7% |
| AI + Work Experience Sentiment Score | % saying AI made day-to-day work better minus % saying it made it worse | +46.4 pts | +35.8 pts |
| Employer AI-Trust Score | % who somewhat or strongly trust their employer to use AI in a way that benefits employees, not just the organization | 42.9% | 42.0% |
| Career Confidence Gap | % agreeing AI will create new opportunities minus % agreeing AI will make current skills less valuable | +4.2 pts | +3.8 pts |
| Training | % of employees who have received AI training from their employer | 76.7% | 80.5% |
Source: Workday August 2026 AI@Work survey (5,944 global workers; 988 in Canada). Global results represent the six countries surveyed.
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